The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-07
BILL NYE FOX HUNTING.
He Explains Few Things Regarding
Our Great National Sport.
From, the Neto York World.

Our Great NaJlOnai CpOII'
From, the NetO York World.
/ We are too apt to regard fox hunting
merely as a relaxation, a source of pleasure,
and the result of desire to do the way
people do in the novels which we steal from
the English authors, but this is not all. 10
successfully hunt a fox, to jump fences,
cross country like an unruly steer is no
child S play. To ride all day on very hot
and restless saddle, trying to lope while your
horse is trotting, giving your friends good
! view of the country between yourself ana
| your horse, then leaping stone walls, break
! ing your colar-bone in four places, pulling
ont one eye and leaving it hanging on
! plum tree, or going home at night with your
transverse colon wrapped around the POM
mel of your saddle and your liver in an Old
newspaper, requires the greatest courage.
Men who can do this must be cool and
| self-possessed. They are generally men who
are prompt to act in case of danger, ana
| often discover and allude in a shrill voice to
| a fire in a crowded theatre years before any
body else knows anything about it.
Too much stress cannot be placed upon
the costume worn while fOX-hunting, and in
fact that is, after all, the life and soul of the
chase. For ladies nothing looks better than
close-fitting jacket, sewed together with
thread OF the same shade. and skirt.
| Neat-itting cavalry boots and a plug hat
complete the costume. Then, with a hue in
one hand and cry in the other, she is pre-
pared to mount, Lead the horse up to a
stone wall or freight car and spring lightly
into the saddle with glad cry. A freight
| car is the best thing from which to mount
horse, but it is too unwieldy, and frequently
| delays the chase. For this reason, too much
| luggage should not be carried on a fox-hunt.
| Some gentlemen carry a change of canes,
neatly concealed in shawl strap, but even
| this may be dispensed with.
For gentlemen dark, four-buttop, cuta-
way coat, with neat, loose-titting white
| pantes, will generally scare a fox into con-
vulsions, so that he may be easily killed
| with club. A short-waisted plug hat may
be worn also in order to distinguish the
hunter from the whipper-in, who wears a
| base ball cap.
The foxhound Is a cross of the blood
hound, the greyhound the bulldog and the
| chump. When you step on his tail he is
| said to be in full cry. The foxhOund OBJ
side of the house his keen scent which ena-
bles him while in full cry cross country to
pause and hunt for 'chipmunks. BE also
| obtains from the bloodhound branch of his
family wild yearning to star i'll an "Uncle
Tom company, and watch 'Little
Eva" meander up the fume at s. per week.
From the greyhound he gets his most
| miraculous speed, which enables him to at
tain a rate of velocity so great that he is
| unable to pause during the excitement of
| the chase frequently running so far during
the day that it takes him week to get
| back, when, of course, all interest has died
out. From the bulldog the foxhound OBJ
| tains his great tenacity of purpose, his deep
seated convictions, his quick perceptions,
| his love of home and his clinging nature.
From the chump the foxhound gets his high
fol hot
enables him to distinguish almost at a
glance the salient points of difference be-
| tween 2-year-old steer and 50 bill.
The only fox hunting | have ever done
was on board an impetuous, tough-bitted,
| re-and-aft horse that had emotional in
sanity. / was dressed i'll a swallow-tail
coat, waistcoat of Scotch plaid Turkish
| toweling and PAIR of close fitting brooches
| of etiquette tucked into my bOot-tops. AS
l was away from home at the time and
| could not reach my own Steed, | was obliged
| to mount spirited steed. with high, intel
| lectual hips, one white eye and big red
nostril that you could set a Shanghai hen
| i'll. This horse. as soon as the pack broke
| into full cry, climbed over fence that had
wrought-iror briers on it, lit in a cornfeld,
| stabbed his hind leg through a sere and vel
low pumpkin, which he wore the rest of
the day, with seven yards of pumkin vine
| streaming out behind, and away we dashed
| 'cross country. | remained mounted, not
because | enjoyed it, for did not, but be-
cause dreaded to dismount hated to get
off in pieces. If [ can't get off horses
back as a whole / would rather adhere to
the horse. will adhere that | did So
We did not see the fox but we saw almost
everything else. remember among other
things of riding through a dollhouse and
| how | enjoyed it. A morning scamper
through a conservatory when the syringas
and jonquils ard Jack roses lie cuddled up to-
gether in their little bees is thing to re-
member and look back to and pay for. TO
stand knee-deep in glass and gladiolas, to
smell the mashed and mussed-up mignonette
| and the last fragrant sigh of the scrunched
heliotrope beneath the hoof of your horse,
while far away the deep-mouthed baying of
| the hoarse hounds, hotly hugging the reek-
ing trail of the anise-seed bag, calls on the
gorgeously caparisoned hills to give back
their merry music or fork it over to other
answering hills, is joy to the huntsman's
heart
On, ON l rode, with my unconfined locks
streaming behind me in the Autumn wind
On and still on | sped, the big, bright
pumpkin slipped up and down the gambrel
of my spirited horse at every lump On
| and ever on we went, shedding terror and
pumpkin-saed along our glittering track till
my proud steed ran his leg into gopher
| mole anu Iell over one OF UflOSe machines
that they put on a high-headed steer to keep
him from jumping fences. As the horse
fell the necklace of this hickory poke flew
up and adjusted itself around my
throat. In an instant my steed
was on his feet again, and gayly
we went forward while the prong of
this barbarous appliance ever and
anon plowed into brand-new culvert or
rooted up a clover field. Every time it ran
into an orchard or a cemetery it would jar
my neck and knock me silly But | could
see with joy that it reduced the speed of my
horse. At last, as she sun went down, re-
luctantly, it seemed to me, for he knew
that he would never see such riding again,
my ill-spent horse fell with hollow moan.
curled up, gave a spasmodic culver with
his little, nerveless, Sawed-off tail and died.
The other huntsmen succeeded in freeing
the anise-seed bag at shutdown, in time to
catch the g o'clock train home.
| BILL NYE